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Tag: boko haram

  • Inside Boko Haram camp, by escapees

    Inside Boko Haram camp, by escapees

    •We killed 18 insurgents, says DHQ

    Two women who escaped from the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents have relived their horrendous experience.

    Liatu and Janet told the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Kaduna how they escaped from the insurgents after spending several days with them.

    Liatu, 23, who claimed to have spent 12 days with her abductors inside the Sambisa forest, said she was captured by the insurgents on her way to her village. The insurgents, according to her, barricaded the road near the Bama Bridge, killing some people and abducting others.

    One of the men who was also abducted, she said, suggested that they should escape. “One man suggested that we run away because one can only die once. We took a golf car and ran away, the Boko Haram people chased us on a motorbike, shooting at us and killed those who sat at the back. When we were approaching Bama, they retreated and went back,” Liatu said.

    Liatu, a Christian, claimed that the Boko Haram members had earlier asked her to accept Islam as a religion. She watched while they slaughtered about 50 people.

    Also sharing her experience with the BBC, Janet claimed that she spent about three months with the insurgents who tried to conscript her after severally violating her. They took her to Gwoza town in the state where they killed people.

    Liatu claimed that the insurgents gave her a knife and instructed her to slaughter one of the five people, a task she said she could not perform, adding that the wife of the Boko Haram leader later carried out the task on her behalf.

    Janet said she has continued to live with the nightmare, and the gory details of what transpired when the victims were killed, adding that most of the Boko Haram members were known faces to her because they were neighbours.

    She claimed that she escaped from her captors after feigning illness and was allowed to seek medical attention. “I feigned illness for two weeks; they said I had AIDS and should be taken to their hospital for test. I told them it was stomach pain. That was how I escaped.

    “The Boko Haram men hide in caves and mountains. They sight jets and other aircraft. I felt happy whenever I saw soldiers, but they could not locate the Boko Haram who were mostly, along the Liman Kara and Gwoza axis.

    “They took many of us into the bush. If they searched and found ID card, they will say they had warned that people should not work for the government, and they will kill the person. For those Konduga girls, they will select those who perm their hair and kill them.”

    Also yesterday, the Defence Headquarters said government troops at the weekend, killed 18 suspected Boko Haram insurgents in Bama and Ngurosoye in Borno State.

    A statement by the Director Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said the insurgents were dislodged while attempting to attack some settlements.

    According to the DHQ, 16 AK 47 rifles, five pick up vans and seven Gulf cars belonging to the insurgents were destroyed.

    The statement however said the attack at Bama market in which about 20 persons were reported killed had not been verified, adding that 75 villagers were screened and released in the course of cordon and search in the adjoining communities.

    The statement added: “In a related development, a total of 16 AK47 rifles were recovered in the course of cordon and search of communities, while mop up operations are ongoing on Mandara mountains and Haraza hills.

    “Troops eventually overran camps in the outskirts of Gombole, Mele, Kecheri, Dufrfada, Yuwe, and others around Mandara mountains and Sambisa forests after stiff resistance. Many terrorists died in the encounter. A soldier lost his life and five others were wounded.

    “The Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) has also stepped up patrols of the banks of Lake Chad as well as surrounding communities in addition to air surveillance and patrols designed to smoke out the remnants of the terrorists.

    “The air raids on some camps sited on Islands have also recorded successes in dislodging the terrorists located there.

    “Cordon and search for the terrorists have been focused on thorough screening of the villagers in surrounding communities. Many terrorists have been identified and subsequently apprehended by troops in the process.

    “Meanwhile, troops morale and fighting spirit have remained noticeably high while some of the terrorists camps falling to the forces in the ongoing counter terrorists campaign have been found deserted.

    “Food items earlier seized by the terrorists from the villagers are often found stockpiled along with other items such as electronics and power generators. The camps were swiftly razed by the troops”.

     

  • Buhari denies link with Boko Haram, may go to court

    Buhari denies link with Boko Haram, may go to court

    A former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has denied either sponsoring or backing Boko Haram as alleged by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

    He said the PDP is playing politics with Boko Haram insurgency to cover up for the deluge of public perceptions against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    But there were indications last night that Buhari might go to court to clear his name if the PDP does not withdraw its allegation.

    Buhari, who made the clarifications through his spokesman, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, likened the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh to Joseph Goebbels in the last days of Adolf Hitler’s regime.

    He said: “For clarity, Gen. Buhari has never supported or sponsored insurgency. He has no link with Boko Haram; he cannot do any of such things, he would never be involved in insurgency. They are just afraid of this man at the poll

    “In all his years, in the service of Nigeria, he has always shown total patriotism for the state. It is total arrant nonsense. It is a ploy by PDP to cover up the deluge of negative perceptions against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan because the general elections are around the corner. Unlike 2011, they know they have a mountain to climb to convince Nigerians to vote for them.

    “PDP has found it convenient to play on the very thin line of religion and ethnicity to remain in power but Nigerians are wiser.

    “General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) has proven his mettle as a patriotic Nigerian leader whose passion for the virility of the Nigerian Nation is untrammeled.

    “He is still the reference point in transparent, honest and compassionate leadership. This, obviously, contrasts the present leadership that constantly evinces larcenous disposition in its governance of the nation. Indeed, Nigerians are asking: where is the $20 Billion that NNPC has not remitted to the Federation account?”

    Responding to a question, Fashakin, who was a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) added: “Gen. Buhari might go to court; he has had enough of this nonsense from PDP and the likes of Metuh.”

    A follow-up statement condemned the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh for showing desperation with fabricated lies to gain political advantage.

    The statement added: “Metuh is showing as much desperation as Joseph Goebbels in the last days of the Hitler regime.

    “It is sad that Mr. Metuh decided to deal in despicable fabrications with a view to gaining political advantage through iniquitous revisionism.

    “The former NSA, late Gen Andrew Azazi, was unequivocal in his assertion that the power play in the PDP was the raison d’etre of the Boko Haram insurgency. Apparently, the discomfort caused within the PDP hierarchy was the reason for his sack.

    “Furthermore, we knew of the confessional statement to the SSS by one of the PDP stalwarts that the contact with Boko Haram was with the imprimatur of the VP Namadi Sambo!

    “It is well understood that after the ruinous Jonathan regime had impoverished the teeming population of Nigerians through its deliberate policy of leadership-centred corruption, there will obviously be a desire to attempt to deflect the pressure put on it by Nigerians.”

    The statement asked the PDP and Jonathan administration to address exploitation of jobless youths instead of clinging to any excuse for not providing employment.

    It said: “An exploitative and iniquitous regime that specializes in exploiting poor Nigerian youth on the pretence of providing elusive job placements.”

    “This is a regime that has shown culpability in the needless deaths of vulnerable Nigerians through the callous lusting for greedy gains by the key honchos of the PDP party, as seen in the botched immigration job recruitment earlier in the month of March.

    “This is a regime that is now so desperate as to employ the services of an Olisa Metuh who, without scruples, evinces infernal asininity with his press statements.”

  • Boko Haram: 20 killed in market bomb

    Suspected Boko Haram insurgents at the weekend detonated a bomb in a crowded marketplace in Bama, Borno State, killing no fewer than 20 people, witnesses said on Sunday.

    Although no group has claimed responsibility, security officials said the attack late on Saturday bore the hallmarks of an attack by Boko Haram.

    “I travelled to Bama …to buy bags of beans. Suddenly, there was a deafening bang at the middle of the market. It was in the late afternoon and commercial activities were at their peak,” said Shuaibu Abdulahi, a trader at the market.

    He estimated the death toll to be as high as 29. Abba Tahir, a bus driver who was offloading passengers at the market, said he counted 20 bodies.

    “People were helping in evacuating the corpses after the confusion had died down. Some people who were injured were taken to the general hospital,” Tahir said.

    The military spokesman for Borno state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Borno state has ordered all of its schools to shut before the end of term to protect children after sect members killed dozens of pupils in an attack last month.

    Security officials said Boko Haram had shot or burned to death at least 29 pupils in a boarding school in northeast Nigeria. A journalist who counted bodies in the morgue after the attack put the figure at 59.

  • Boko Haram: Troops move to stop fleeing insurgents

    Boko Haram: Troops move to stop fleeing insurgents

    •Injured officers, soldiers may be flown abroad for referral

    Troops have launched pre-emptive plans to block Boko Haram insurgents from escaping to Gombe Bauchi and Taraba States.

    All military formations in the three states have been put on the alert to be on the lookout for any such fleeing insurgents.

    The military authority has also concluded plans to fly wounded officers and soldiers in Borno State abroad for referral treatment.

    Some hospitals in Borno State and adjoining states are currently treating injured officers and other ranks with various degrees of injuries.

    A military source, who spoke in confidence, said the incursions made by troops in the last two weeks have left the insurgents in disarray.

    Intelligence reports confirmed that the insurgents were trying to regroup in Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba prompting the red alert on troops and all military formations.

    The source said: “From attacks and counter-attacks against the insurgents in the last two weeks, it is typically a war situation as earlier stated by the Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima.

    “The insurgents had been attempting to flee to the neighbouring states of Jalingo, Gombe and Bauchi to go and regroup. This is their usual technique.

    “Troops have however been directed to stop them from fleeing to these states. Also, all military formations in these states are on red alert to deal with the escapees.

    “There is no more hiding place for these insurgents until they are routed out from their enclaves.

    “It is purely an insurgency and not any religious war which must be curtailed once and for all.

    The source said volunteers known as the civilian JTF have been doing well in helping to provide information in the zone and the state.

    It was also learnt that the troops are also monitoring all market days in Borno and Yobe States where the insurgents get food supply.

    The source added: “On each market day, there are usually flurries of attacks because the insurgents usually come to get food stuffs to re-stock .

    “We want to cut the sources of their food supply. If it means shutting down these markets, we will do so.

    “The only challenge we are having is that we do not want the innocent civilian population to suffer.”

    Another source said that some injured officers and men might be flown abroad for referral treatment.

    One of the sources said:”Hospitals in the metropolis are littered with injured officers; majors, colonels and captains with various degrees of injuries.

    “No adequate care is neither provided for them nor their families. We call on the military authority to do something.”

    In a response to our enquiries, the spokesman for Defence Headquarters, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said: “Well, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, and the service chiefs have placed premium on health care for the injured.

     

    “In fact, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah on Saturday addressed the troops and assured them that all those injured or wounded who need referral service abroad will be accorded same.

    “Lt. Gen. Minimah said irrespective of status all those wounded would be given full medical attention.”

     

     

    On the fleeing insurgents, Olukolade said: “All military formations in Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba states have been placed on red alert to arrest them.

    “The insurgents are already bowing to the superior powers of the troops. We are winning the battle against insurgency, the morale of troops is higher.”

     

  • On the wind of change in education from the north

    On the wind of change in education from the north

    That northern leaders from various political parties are now convinced that progress in the north depends on the level of literacy in the region is good news for the whole country

    Whose who criticise the propensity of Nigerians to have faith in miracles do not seem to understand the metaphysics of change. Change sometimes comes in the manner of miracles, without any visible connection to logic. At a time that a section of the north is killing innocent citizens in the belief that education is sin, major leaders from the north are creating revolutionary ideas about education in response to the logic of lack, lack prolongation, and lack liquidation. Perhaps, the age of Nigeria’s miracles has arrived, even before delegates start sitting to create constitutional change in Abuja.

    Although the quality of education has declined considerably in all parts of the country, the number of children in schools and colleges in most of the north has remained small in relation to the south, despite several attempts to redress the imbalance over the years. The low enrollment across levels of education has not resulted from Boko Haram’s Education is Sin philosophy. Long before the grandparents of Boko Haram adherents were born, the gap between school enrollment in the north and in the south was very wide. It was so wide in the 1970s that the federal military government designated most states in the northern part of the country as educationally backward or disadvantaged. Only two states: Rivers and Lagos were in this category from the south at that time. These two states outgrew their disadvantage, simply because their leaders took deliberate decisions to redress educational imbalance as the only way to participate in the culture of modernity.

    But most states in the north have remained disadvantaged even four decades after the federal government created several affirmative action programmes to change the culture of education in the region. Schools of basic studies were started in the region, to prepare students for tertiary education. Nomadic education was established by the federal government to give education to itinerant animal farmers. Joint Admission and Matriculation Board was created to control admission to federal universities, with a view to ensure a level playing field for candidates from the north and the south. Up till today, JAMB has different levels of scores for college admission for citizens from the north and the south, all in an effort at educational equalisation between the two regions. More recently, the federal government also initiated a new version of nomadic education, called Almajiri education. But none of these affirmative action programmes seems to have worked well to induce the culture of modernity in the north, in relation to the rest of the country.

    All the time that the federal government devoted huge resources to affirmative action, northern leaders did not show as much enthusiasm about changing the mindset of citizens and improving facilities for learning as the federal government did. The result is the widening gap between the two sections of the country even fifty years after independence. That northern leaders from various political parties are now convinced that progress in the north depends on the level of literacy in the region is good news for the whole country. Once all the states are on the same page on the relationship between literacy and development, the entire country will be on its way to solving most of the other problems that militate against peace and progress in the fledgling federation.

    New ideas about how to position the north favorably for development are now coming from within the region, without any stimulation from the omnipotent federal government that often confuses creating bureaucracies with providing education. The good thing about the new ideas from northern leaders is that they can also help the south to come to grips with changing demands for modernisation and globalisation. For example, nothing captures the theme of education in a federation better than Nuhu Ribadu’s advice: “As part of a federal system, the north can legitimately articulate its own philosophy and tools for development to achieve whatever agenda is for the north….In this journey we are making, we have to continue to evaluate and from time to time, shake up or shake off practices, norms, and dogmas that hinder our progress.”

    Another seismic change in worldview or ideology is captured by Atiku Abubakar’s recent suggestion: “We cannot significantly improve education in this country if we continue with the current overly centralised system with suffocating federal control….Federal schools should be handed over to the states in which they are locatedand the budgetary resources hitherto expended on them transferred to those state governments. In addition to decentralisation and geographical diversification we must also diversify our curriculum and educational programmes. The one-size-fits-all approach will not help us.” Just like Ribadu, Atiku is responding creatively to the realities of the north in particular while also pointing to the way out of the educational decline that has affected the whole country in the last four decades, particularly since federal government’s take-over of commanding heights of education during the era of military rule.

    Still on the theme of miracles happening when the time is ripe, the Northern Governors Forum put the icing on the cake when it announced the group’s intention, shortly before going on an investment drive in the United States last week, to take the matter of education into the hands of the rulers of the north. To show that the governors are ready to use home-spun methods to increase school enrollment and retention, they have, without apology, decided to re-establish two-year teacher training colleges that the federal government had abolished nationwide, to abolish school fees for secondary school students; and to re-establish schools of basic studies to prepare school leavers in the region for university admission.

    These ideas from the north should be of interest to politicians from the south as well. They are likely to be as useful to the south as they are to the north. Northern political leaders have, in the statements quoted earlier, set the tone for re-federalisation of education in the country. They have come to grips with major issues in the design of education provision. First, major northern leaders have recognised the umbilical cord between literacy and development. Second, they have acknowledged the relationship between culture and education. Third, the leaders have come to realise that federal bureaucracies cannot develop education effectively in a federal system. Fourth, they are ready to do whatever is necessary internally to solve a problem that is largely internal to the region.

    The unintended consequence of this paradigm shift in the north is the groundwork it has done indirectly for delegates at the national conference. By recognising the failure in centralisation of education, especially the stifling of innovation caused by an “overly centralised curriculum,” to borrow Atiku’s vocabulary, northern political leaders are signalling to their southern counterparts that they are ready for far-reaching decentralisation in the provision of education in the country.

    National conference delegates need to congratulate themselves for having the advantage of starting the conference on a note of consensus on a major area of revenue and responsibility allocation. Just as Femi Folorunso said in a recent lecture in Lagos: “Make or Break: the Imperative of Cultural Democracy in Nigeria,” delegates should accept the need to put the matter of education at all levels to the states and leave only quality assurance and specialised research to the federal government. The old approach started by military rulers to give funds and functions that should have been better left to subnational governments to the central government are now being deconstructed by political and cultural leaders from a region that has contributed more to unitary rule than any other part of the country. The call for decentralisation of education by the north is the way to go for the entire country, especially now that it embarks on re-designing itself for a future of peace and progress.

  • Ripples over Boko Haram at the House of Reps

    Ripples over Boko Haram at the House of Reps

    As Boko Haram members continue to wreck havoc in the North-East, the House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to review upward its earlier allocation to the region from N2 bn to N12billion.

    The House also told its Committee on Appropriation to find a way of increasing the allocation in the 2014 budget’s Sinking Fund for Infrastructural Development, which is under the capital supplementation head.

    The lawmakers’ decision was reached sequel to a motion under the matters of urgent national importance moved by Rep Abdurrahman Terab (APC, Borno), who said that the N2billion contribution by the federal government for the rebuilding process could not be adequate to address the huge economic challenges of the region.

    Terab said, “funds provided for future purposes under the Capital Supplementation Head of the 2014 budget do not compare in priority when the country is losing one sixth of its territory to unimaginable magnitude of destruction.

    If the effort for reconstruction is not taken seriously despite the quantum of destruction, public confidence will continue to dwindle, while also vindicating the sympathisers of the insurgents that the country does not care about its masses at all,” he said.

    Deputy  leader of the House, Rep Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta) while contributing on the motion, cautioned on the earlier prayer of the motion mover to increase the allocation to N12 billion.

    Rep Ogor (PDP Delta), opposed the motion, saying if the House adopted the motion, it would open the floodgate of members coming up with issues of their constituencies to be inserted in the 2014 budget, which would spell doom for the fiscal year.

    Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal while ruling on the matter said the Appropriation committee would have to look inward and find ways of increasing the amount, without having to take N10 billion from the Sinking Fund in the budget.Tambuwal tasked the committee to find avenue of increasing the amount, saying that since the House agreed for the review of the allocation, there would not be specific amount for the monies to be increased to.

  • Boko Haram: APC fires back at PDP

    Boko Haram: APC fires back at PDP

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday dared the PDP to urgently make available to Nigerians evidence of the opposition’s alleged involvement in the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency or forever shut up

    ”We have absolutely no hand in this insurgency, and we dare anyone with contrary information to publish such today. It is trite that he who alleges must prove,” the party declared in a statement in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    “In the absence of any evidence, Nigerians will have no choice, but to conclude that the relentless finger-pointing by the PDP/Presidency is a ploy to divert attention from those who are actually behind this insurgency, those who see it as a trump card to 2015 and those who have been benefitting massively from the huge funds being allocated to security,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

    APC said that the PDP accusation was made within the framework of its plan to frame up the opposition and clamp down on its leaders ahead of the 2015 polls , having realized that it (PDP) cannot possibly win the elections owning to its appalling record of failure.

    ”Otherwise, how can the PDP-led federal government claim to have ‘evidence of meetings held outside the shores of the country’ to violently overthrow the government of President Jonathan, and yet refuse to make such evidence public or arrest and try those involved? Or is it only the riotous spokesman of the ruling party who has the evidence?” the party queried.

    Besides,the APC slammed the PDP for suffering from selective amnesia by its warped interpretation of APC’s statement, which pointed out to the ruling party that President Jonathan is not the first minority Nigerian leader, hence the people should be spared the boring reference to his ethnic origin.

    It said:”It is a reflection of PDP’s diabolical mind that it only picked out the former minority leaders who are soldiers and left out the name of a former civilian leader. We mentioned three former leaders who are of minority ethnic stock: Tafawa Balewa (Sayewa), Yakubu Gowon (Angas) and Sani Abacha (Kanuri).

    “Curiously but not unfathomably, the PDP dropped the name of Balewa and then extrapolated from the fact that we mentioned two former military leaders that we are comparing a democratically-elected President with defunct military dictatorships. This can only be the product of a contorted mind. Good a thing, Nigerians understand better and will not be fooled by such a sickening stretch!” APC said.

    The party reiterated its earlier statement that the only reason this insurgency has persisted is the incompetence, cluelessness, inferiority complex and collusion of the presidency.

    ”First, we heard from no other personality than President Jonathan himself that his cabinet is infested with Boko Haram. Then the PDP started pointing fingers at some imaginary opposition leaders as being behind the insurgency, and now the President has openly admitted his own incompetence by saying his administration has been treating terrorism with kid gloves.

    ”Pray, where in the world can any battle against terrorism be won when the government is treating such with kid gloves? Need we ask why the government has failed woefully to tackle terrorism in Nigeria? Need we ask why the government has patently ignored all suggestions from us and many Nigerians on how to tackle the terrorists rampaging in the North-east?” it asked.

    APC said that the best way to tackle the insurgency in the North lies in developing a discernible counter-terrorism strategy that will clearly identify the multiple means for preventing, responding and defeating terrorist groups, including the alignment of political, military, social and economic instruments and objectives; improving intelligence gathering; de-radicalizing the affected areas; and investing in research that will give more insight into the different aspects of Boko Haram, including its ideology, leadership structure, profile of members, internal organization, sources of funding and weapons and links to diaspora.

    It also stressed the need to widen the scope of Nigeria’s response to include the sub-regional bloc ECOWAS and the continental body African Union, especially since Boko Haram has assumed a regional dimension; the need for a Marshall Plan of sorts for the North-east, “not the paltry 2 billion Naira which the FG provided as recovery fund to the six North-east states, at least four of which are worse-hit by the insurgency.”

  • Bring back moral instructions

    Bring back moral instructions

    THIS is a matter I want President Goodluck Jonathan to attach much importance to in the interest of our nation. Moral instructions are no more taught in our primary schools. Military intervention in the governance of this country brought a stop to the teaching of civics and other related subjects in the country.

    The failure to teach moral instructions engendered social vices and problems like Boko Haram.

    We are today witnessing many crises in our national life. To bring a stop to these challenges is not difficult. Our president should bring back moral instructions to our schools.

    This is not a trivial matter. It should be handled with seriousness.

    J. Dega,

    Lagos State.

  • Military battles Boko Haram in Sambisa forest

    Military battles Boko Haram in Sambisa forest

    he military has taken the battle against the Boko Haram insurgents to the sect’s base in the Sambisa forest in Borno State.

    It also declared that the battle will soon be over because the sect members are “on the run”

    Director, Defence Information (DDI), Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, spoke in an interview in Maiduguri, when he accompanied Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Kenneth Minimah and Chief of Air Staff Air Mashall Adesola Amosu, on a visit to the troops.

    “The military is operating in the Sambisa forest, in hills and other forests around.

    “The idea is to make sure that the insurgents do not have a camp where they can organise their crime like before.

    “Unlike some months back, the insurgents are now on the run,’’ he said.

    Gen. Olukolade said the attempted attack on Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, by the insurgents was a sign of weakness.

    “You will observe that they have stopped soft spot attacks for some time now.

    “Most of the attacks now are daring, like the attempted barrack attacks, because they know that there time was up,’’ he said.

    Gen. Olukolade said: “The visit is to assess the operation of troops on the ground. They have always visited to see things on ground,” he said, adding that “terrorism is like armed robbery, prostitution and other crimes, which have been on for a long time.

    “These cannot be wiped out completely in the society, but you can bring them down to the lowest level where they cannot affect social and economic life.

    “Our aim is to reduce terrorism to the lowest level where it will not be able to disrupt social and economic lives of the people.’’

    Gen. Olukolade also faulted claims that some military commanders had failed to act on urgent information due to non-approval by their high command.

    “It is not true that commanders will have to wait for permission before acting on urgent information on terrorist attacks or movements.

    “Certainly, our operation does not require seeking permission from outside.

    “Officers have some latitude to operate in such kind of situation.

    “Each officer has been briefed on the rules of engagement in any operation; it is left for him to act immediately he receives information on terrorist attack or movement.

    “If we receive complaint on officers refusing to act on urgent information, such officers will be reprimanded,’’ He said.

    Cameroon will send 700 soldiers to its northeastern border as part of a regional force to tackle armed groups in an area Boko Haram operates, that country’s Defence Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o said yesterday

    At a two-day meeting in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, defence ministers from the six-nation Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) agreed to establish the multinational force to improve security in the zone.

    The infiltration of Boko Haram militants into Cameroon’s Far-North region, which they use as a launch pad for attacks in Nigeria, has led to mounting insecurity there. Rebels are believed to be hiding among an influx of refugees from Nigeria.

    Ngo’o said details of the multinational force would be established at a summit in Niger’s capital Niamey this year.

    “Cameroon has decided to provide a contingent of 700 soldiers for this unit of the LCBC,” Ngo’o said. “But we believe each country should keep its troops within its own borders.”

    Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, LCBC executive secretary, had requested that member countries quickly put in place a multinational force to reimpose order in the region.

    A Cameroon soldier was killed by suspected Boko Haram militants in Fotokol in the Far-North region, close to the border with Nigeria, last month.

    As well as the threat from Boko Haram, the area has become a crossroads for weapons trafficking to Nigeria, Sudan and Central African Republic. Cameroon’s military detained a man attempting to transport 655 guns to Nigeria in January.

    The LCBC was created in 1964 by the four countries bordering Lake Chad – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – and was later joined by Central African Republic and Libya, according to its website.

    The Catholic diocese of Maiduguri consisting of three NorteEastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe has said that 109 members of the Church were killed by the insurgents in different attacks. It declared that 27 women lost their husbands while 107 children were orphaned.

    The Church spoke yesterday at a news conference at the Saint Augustine’s Minor Seminary, Yola.

    The Director Social Communications Directorate of the Church, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasagie, who lamented the persecution said unless the Federal Government took drastic measures to save Christians living in the three states, Christians would be completely wiped out as the scale of violence being mated to them was unfathomable.

    Speaking on the attack on his school in Chakawa by the sect, the Rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary Rev. Father Alexander Miskita William recalled how the insurgents fired shots which aroused the suspicion.

    “We were surprised to note that insurgents launched attack in the area because we know the military were deployed there.

    “We were told that Boko Haram men were on the rampage as a result, we gathered the students as we have no alternative other than to move.

    “So when we heard the chant of Allahu Akbar we immediately took the 240 students in the school to safety through the perimeter fence where they spent the night in the bush”.

    He added that the attack was premeditated to kill the priest as the insurgents kept asking of him while the operation lasted.

    “There was a cripple in the school who could not escape before the insurgents struck. When they met him, they asked him to take them to the priest but he told them that he was a stranger and did not know anybody. He said 90 pupils have been withdrawn by their parents.

    The Parish Priest of Saint Peter’s Parish Pulka, Reverend Father James John said between Gwoza and Bama areas of Borno State, about 23 local Churches have been burnt as Christians were forced to leave the areas. He said 43 people lost their houses.

  • A decade of glory

    A decade of glory

    It has been only a few weeks since my temporary but unavoidable absence from this page. But as some earthshaking local and international occurrences during that period demonstrate, a twinkle of an eye could screen a hundred years of comment-deserving news.

    One of the hard-hitting international events was the Putinisque thumbing of the West with his in-your-face embrace of realpolitik as the new world order. When we thought that the cold war was over, Putin’s Russia decided to assert its interest against moral considerations.

    A second event was the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian jet above the Indian Ocean. If reasonable people can disagree on the rightness or wrongness of Putin’s annexation of Ukraine, there is no argument about the tragedy of 239 souls missing without a trace.

    Beside the international events, there have been some newsworthy local events, tragic and comical. Boko Haram no longer has the capacity to surprise anyone except those irredeemable optimists who fail to acknowledge the sad reality of our national weakness in the face of determined psychopaths butchering innocent children in their sleep. Isn’t it a national embarrassment that every time someone makes a declaration of intention to root out Boko Haram from the nation, the sect responds with a more ferocious lethal force?

    And there is the tragic paradox of a nation that challenges her children to go to school, work hard, and get a diploma, only to turn around and get them killed. I do not know of a universe in which it makes sense for a government branch to invite half a million candidates to 20 centers for job test and interview. Assume even that there are 50 centers and the candidates are evenly distributed so that there are 10,000 in each center. What was the plan for their supervision? There was no adequate security. Only a few gates were opened at each stadium for more than 10,000 candidates seeking jobs to file in. And the agency was surprised about the outcome. Indeed, some officers were quoted as suggesting that no one was to blame because the deaths were natural. This too must not shock us because we heard it before in the case of murdered corps members.

    While I care about the world and the prospects of the cosmopolitan ideal, the local has a special appeal for its urgency and impact. If Boko Haram is not effectively contained now, none of us is safe. Consider the prospect of the sect’s infiltration of the southwest with millions of youths facing daily conditions of hopelessness and helplessness. Can anyone really afford to sleep with their eyes closed? It is stressful having to constantly reflect on these avoidable tragic national stories and I want to discipline myself to resist it. Life is short, as my friend keeps dinning into my ears.

    Of course, the national news is not all bleak. The arguments for and against the timing of the National Conference have not prevented the conferees from sitting even though logistical issues have forced an adjournment barely 24 hours after its inauguration. We must anticipate and pray for a good outcome because therein lies the future prospects of the country. If we get it right, we may have a new security regime that privileges local and state governments. We may have a new attitude to education and job creation if the center is effectively trimmed. This is therefore a potential good story. But there is plenty of time and since the leadership of the conference has promised to make it open with a website which will hopefully update the public on the deliberations, I promise to follow its work with rapt attention in the weeks to come.

    Today, however, I have some good, heart-warming, indeed joyous, local news to share with my readers. As many of my friends know, I am fond of tradition because it is empowering if we harness it effectively. We are all products of tradition because we are the offspring of our progenitors and we bear the mark of their imprint in language, customs and mores, and yes, in education. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known for his insistence on the virtue of traditional education and nationalistic upbringing of children, remains one of my favorite philosophers. As Rousseau was fond of his native Geneva, so I am tied to the apron string of Okeho, where my umbilical cord remains buried in the family compound.

    This weekend, sons and daughters of Okeho have a good reason to celebrate the life and reign of HRH Oba RafiuOsuolale Mustapha, Adeitan II affectionately referred to as Ilufemiloye (my people want me on the throne). The unanimous choice of Okeho ten years ago, Kabiyesi has reigned with wisdom and fairness; and he is loved and admired by all and sundry. He has been a rallying point for intellectuals and the business class, youths and elders, and men and women. A Muslim by faith, Kabiyesi has embraced all faith traditions. He and his Olori and the family attend major Christian events, rotating among churches for such observances. Most importantly, he has championed the development of the town by encouraging natives and outsiders to establish businesses in town.

    Okeho has a fascinating history which could be of interest to our current national discourse. The town derived its name from its geographical setting of hills and holes (Oke-Iho) characterised by a site chosen because of the refuge it provided against foreign invasion.

    Onjo is the title of the traditional ruler. The first Onjo of Okeho was Ojo Oronna from OjoKosiwon ruling house in Ilaro Egbado of Ogun State. A crown prince, OjoKosiwon was not allowed to ascend the throne of OluIlaro and he therefore relocated to the area that became Okeho around 1750. This is relevant to our contemporary fascination with the boundary between indigenes and settlers.

    A short distance from the first settlement that Oronna created there was another settler named Olofin with his family. The two met and started living as neighbours. Other settlers soon joined the two and formed what is known as Okeho. Settlers from the other ten towns with their Chiefs who had lived at a considerable distance from one another were forced to consolidate their defence against the Dahomeans, and powerful Oba ArilesireArojojoye who reigned between 1800 and 1820 AD allocated lands to the settlers from the ten different towns.

    The settling of Okeho is thus a perfect real-life illustration of the theoretical position of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in The People’s Republic. As Awolowo observed, “Where different families lived as peaceable neighbours, they sooner or later discovered that some advantages of division of labour which were otherwise lacking might accrue to them if they united or co-operated with one another for purposes of production and exchange.” The eleven towns,made up of eleven extended families that constituted the quarters or wards of Old Okeho, included Ijo, Isia, Ogan, Bode, IsaleAlubo, Gbonje, Olele, Imoba, Isemi, Oke-Ogun, and Pamo. These still maintain some element of independence on various issues and each is still interestingly referred to as “ilu” (town) as in Ilu Isia. This is true federalism at work.

    The settlers accepted the authority of Onjo because of his royal origin and sense of administration. This led to the installation of the first Onjo and subsequently twelve Onjos at Old Okeho. It is instructive to note that Old Okeho was the only town that did not fall to the conquest of the Fulani Jihadists and Dahomean invaders while all other towns situated south of Old Okeho up to River Opara were scattered by the invaders.

    This weekend, as Okeho sons and daughters celebrate their loving Kabiyesi and his amiable Olori Taibat Omotola Mustapha, they are surrounded by the seven mountains and hills Eti-igun, Olofin, Akasube, Biayin, Okofori, Meseole, and Obaapa that protected their forebears from Dahomean invaders and have since been sources of pleasure and serenity away from the stress of urbanity.

    Ogoyii, Oluwa, yeeogoyii! Mase je kobaje! Mase je kodaru! Mase je kobaje o! Oluwa, yee, ogoyii. May Kabiyesi’s reign be long, happy, and prosperous.